This archive report was first published on 6 October 2021.
Published on October 6, 2021, the US State Department announced the opening of the green card lottery program for fiscal year 2023 (DV-2023), which will run until November 9, 2021.
Kenya is among the countries eligible for the Diversity Visa program, commonly known as the green card lottery program, which makes up to 55,000 green cards available on a lottery basis to nationalities of countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.
However, countries with more than 50,000 of their citizens immigrating to the US over the previous five years are excluded from participating in the program. For DV-2023, this list includes Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (including Hong Kong SAR), Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
To participate in the lottery, the entrant must be from an eligible country and meet the education/work experience requirement by having either at least a high school education or two years of work experience in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.
Registration for entry into the lottery is done exclusively online by submitting Form DS-5501 on the DV program website and is free of charge.
